“You don’t have to be an expert to be a public speaker”

The Agile manifesto supports the fact that communication is important but we’ve still got problems putting it into practice. Public speaking is one of the most dreaded topics among many people and developers, specifically. We caught up with JAX London speaker and software engineer, Erica Tanti to talk about this very topic, how to overcome anxiety when speaking in public, if it is harder for female developers to speak in public, and more!

The impression that software engineers are bad at speaking in public is not new, it’s been around for a while. In her talk at JAX London 2018, Erica Tanti touched upon that very topic that many people in general and developer specifically dread: public speaking!

The Agile manifesto supports the fact that communication is important but we’ve still got problems putting it into practice. If you want to get better at public speaking, you have to use every opportunity to speak (and practice!).

In her talk, Tanti discussed a variety of topics related to public speaking and the fear towards it including how can public speaking make you a better software engineer:

When you have a concept in your head and you manage to communicate it to other people, it also helps you to understand the concept better.

By communicating with other software developers you are making it possible for yourself to learn new things and come in contact with different scenarios.

JAXenter editor Gabriela Motroc caught up with Erica to discuss the main topics of his session, how to overcome anxiety when speaking in public, if it is harder for female developers to speak in public, and more!

Here are some quotes from the interview:

As a developer, either you are working remotely or on-premise, you have to communicate constantly, sometimes even without realizing it.

You can practice public speaking in your day to day life while you are in a company meeting or as an attendee in meet-ups.

We, as women, are taught when we are young that to be polite is to be quiet. So if a woman speaks out the way a man does it can be perceived as aggressive. But as I have found out, the developer community and the world, in general, is ready for the change.

Erica Tanti is a software engineer at a Fintech company in Malta. Additionally, she is a committee member of the Malta Toastmasters Club which has opened doors to a number of other speaking engagements, the highlight last year being representing Malta at the JCI Public Speaking European Committee in Basel, Switzerland. Follow her on Twitter @EricaTheDev.